Saturday, August 25, 2007

Dominos

I just got a menu from Dominos Pizza in my mail box. I didn't know we had Dominos here.
Most local pizzarias here charge about five to seven pounds for a 12-inch pizza. Not cheap, I think. (Currently a pound is two dollars.)
Dominos charge around four pounds more.
That is absolutely obscene. I wonder how they get away with it.
Especially since people here in Northern UK are pretty ch... economical. A friend of mine had two cafes, one was a nice one with what I thought was reasonable prices, you could get a nice meal for seven pounds. That one never made a profit. The other one was a super-bargain lunch cafe. That one was busy-busy-busy.
So how does Dominos get away with charging eleven pounds for a pizza? (Call it 20 dollars.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Advertising.

Or maybe they don't get away with it. You didn't know you had Domino's -- maybe it's new, and not yet failed.

I don't know how good Domino's Pizza is in the UK. In this part of the U.S., it's my opinion that it's about the worst-tasting pizza you can buy. (But different people like different things, so you might not agree.)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Well, I tried one.

It has good points:
1: I spoke to somebody who spoke English well, unlike many of the small pizzerias. (This can be a hassle for special orders.)
2: It came fast.
3: I liked it. Better than most here, and better than Pizza Hut.

Cliff Prince said...

I wouldn't personally recommend Dominos because of two reasons:

1. Their owner structures his organization on a strict rewards-for-performance basis (which COULD mean much more merit-based approval, which I WOULD agree with) that unfortunately ends up meaning that people who "buy their way in" are better able to get promoted than people who have to "work their way up." Consequently, the well-heeled (usually white males) can become "high performers" because of the networking scheme within the organization faster than can underprivileged people (usually members of visible minorities). There is a great deal of scuttlebutt that the white male bigoted Irish-American owner of Dominos set it up this way deliberately, because he agrees with the idea of white male bigots being free to exploit non-whites. I have no proof, but the rumors abound.

2. He makes sure the company charitable donations all go to anti-abortion campaigns. This is readily demonstrated through a few simple searches, as I understand it. I personally disagree with anti-abortion campaigns (though, to split hairs, I am not necessarily pro-abortion) in the USA, especially those supported by corporate sponsors.

For these two reasons, I find the Dominos organization rather suspect. Anyway, their pizzas are more expensive, they no longer have the 30-minutes-or-free guarantee, and they usually don't taste any better.

If anyone can disabuse me of any misapprehensions in items 1 and 2 above, I'm happy to hear better information. Both are roughly at only the "strongly supported rumor" phase in my own mind.

Alex said...

Internationalization is a weird thing.

In the UK my wife and I prefer the taste of Diet Pepsi, or Diet Virgin. In the US we prefer Diet Coke. In the UK I always ate BK, in the US I prefer Macdonalds (golden arches/Micky D's). Though if I have a choice of national chain I go for In-n-Out.

As for Pizza, well, Pizza Hut in the UK is pretty good, more NY style, v's Deep Pans Chicago style. In the US Pizza Hut is a flat greasy thing which is probably only worsted by Straw Hat.

Dominoes are low on the food chain on the west coast. Their 14" 1 topping is $10, our local indenpent is $17:50. It's worth the extra dough.

Anonymous said...

pizza for me rocks in any form.